Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane
by Sgt. Curbstomp
Summary: The Queens of War, Daughters of Khorne, and Angels of the Blood God just didn't appear one day. This is the story of how the Sorority of Violence began. Rated M for being the darkest thing I've written so far.
1. Elysia

**Hello, Warhammer readers and long-time _Sorority_ fans, and this is _Chronicles of Bloodmane_ , the story of the Sorority of Violence's beginnings. This will be an eight-chapter miniseries updated every other day, so Chapter Two will be posted Tuesday, 3 Thursday... I think you see where I'm going. Anyway, I'd like to reiterate this is gonna be quite dark, so be prepared.**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

 _Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane_

 _Chapter One: Elysia_

Somewhere in the Phlegyas Sector's southwest, 266 years before the Sorority of Violence came upon the world of St. Fu, a woman screamed.

Hers was no different from the billions of others who too were bringing new life into the galaxy, but this woman's is the one we will be paying attention to.

She pushed, she strained, she grit her teeth. The midwife shouted that she could see the mother's child.

A set of new wails shook the walls of the room, as the newborn realized it had been evicted from the warmth it had known for nine months.

It was finally over for the mother, a sigh of relief blasting from her worn-out throat.

"It's a girl." The midwife quietly spoke with a smile, the baby's crying slowing and eventually stopping.  
"Let me see her."

Once the older woman made sure the other's child was healthy, clean, and wrapped it in blankets, the young mother met her new daughter.

The little one's eyes had yet to open, but she was beautiful already, in the way only a just-born baby could be.  
"Hi." Her mother whispered.

The father came in a few seconds later, asking, "I have a daughter?"  
"Yes. And she's beautiful." His wife answered.

He sat down on the bed next to her, looking at his progeny.  
"You're right." The man murmured, beaming with joy.

The baby's eyes slowly opened for the first time, two little blue-grey orbs looking back at her parents unfocused.  
"Look at those little eyes." The mother spoke.  
"Like two little pieces of heaven." Her husband replied, then added, "What should we name her?"

"Elysia."

* * *

 _Thirteen years later…_

Her shift was finally over. Elysia's part of the manufactorum was especially dirty today, and some of the other girls who normally worked with her were out sick. Her job was to clean the place up in between the other workers' shifts, so they could assemble lasguns for the Guard and PDF alike without any sort of trouble.

Elysia had to take the employment, since it put food on the table alongside what her parents (who actually worked in the same segment of the complex, doing the actual assembly) did, considering her younger siblings (a brother and a sister) weren't old enough to join them.

Exiting the boiling-hot building with a sigh, Elysia was more than ready to go home, mindlessly walking that way when her ears perked up to a conversation close by.  
"He is?" one older man spoke to another.  
"Yup. End of the week."  
"What for?"  
"Count apparently needs a new servant girl and is checking our city out for one."

It was common for the district administrators (referred to as Counts) and regional governors of Elysia's homeworld to hire or take in servants and attendants from among the populace of their areas of governance as a way of saying, "we all work together." Being selected was considered lucky, since one could hopefully gain a political position after a while.

 _Maybe he'll pick me,_ Elysia thought to herself, _we could use the extra thrones._ She actually had a pretty good chance of being the Count's new maid, since she was considered one of the best workers in her group, never complaining and fulfilling her duties. Beyond that, Elysia was considered attractive to many of her town's boys of the same age, her most striking feature being her black hair, especially when caught in the sun.

"Hi Elysia." A voice spoke to her.

It belonged to Einhard Throck, one of the factory boys not much older than her. He and Elysia knew each other, but rarely spoke, mainly out of shyness.

"Hey Einhard." A small, dopey grin spread across Elysia's face.  
"So, uh… what're you doing tomorrow night?" the boy stammered, his anxiety skyrocketing.  
"Oh… I don't know." The girl answered, a blush developing.  
"You don't know? Okay, um, great. Maybe you wanna hang out?"  
Elysia felt her heart stop for a moment. Einhard was asking her out. Her first date.  
"Uh… yeah, sounds good."  
"Really?" Now it was young Mr. Throck's turn to be surprised, "Oh, I uh… I mean, good. See you then."

Once the two were out of each other's sight, they both whispered a celebratory "yes!" to themselves.

* * *

The next night, the two met outside the manufactorum, and simply walked around, talking about their lives and what they were going to do as adults.  
"I'm gonna join the PDF," spoke Einhard, "My dad's in it, my grandpa was in it, and pretty much every guy in our family is or was. Maybe I can get off-world and join the Guard. What do you want to do when you grow up?"  
"Well the Count apparently is looking for a new servant girl," Elysia replied, "I heard it pays well, and that if you're good there's a chance he'll teach you how to be a politician. Who knows? I might be the next Planetary Governor."  
They both shared a brief laugh, the thought of two faces in a crowd having those honors seeming so silly now, but they were still young and largely optimistic.  
"I hope you do, Elysia. The Count just has to pick you. I mean, you told me your supervisor says you're the best in your group, and you're really smart. And you're…" Einhard was at a loss for words, realizing what he'd been saying.

Elysia felt her face burn, cheeks tingly and a smile on her lips. She'd never been complimented like this before, and wanted to hear what more he had to say.  
"And I'm what?" the words slowly spilled out of her mouth.

"You're… so… you're so… so… Beautiful."

Fireworks ecstatically screamed in the girl's mind.

 _I'm beautiful. Einhard Throck called me beautiful._

She and him simply stood there, blushing profusely for a good minute. Until the boy spoke again, barely able to say it,  
"Can I kiss you?"

Now Elysia had to swallow a joyous sound before it escaped her throat, the celebratory noise in her head reaching an ever higher crescendo.

 _This is really happening._ _I'm really going to get my first kiss._

Gripping each other's sweating hands tightly, the two young lovers leaned in, time slowing to a halt around them.

It was chaste, but sweet.

* * *

 **Ah, young love. Were you "awwww"-ing at that? It's okay if you weren't, I'm not really a romance writer.**

 **Sadly, this will be the only moment like this in this whole story. What'll follow next will be very, very negative. See you Tuesday for that chapter!**


	2. Internment

**Ok, so, here's the next chapter. I don't have much to say.**

* * *

 _Chapter Two: Internment_

The end of the week came quicker to Elysia than anybody else, considering she'd been absolutely giddy since her night with Einhard, reliving it over and over in her mind as she worked. In fact, she almost completely forgot the Count was arriving today to hire a new maid, which was a bit more understandable when factoring in that it was not an event really worth celebrating or making a grand spectacle of.

He had simply entered the town in a ground-car with a bodyguard, going to various businesses and looking for a suitable young lady to work for him. So far, he had not found her yet. Going to the lasgun manufactorum, the Count was directed to the foreman's office, where he said after introductions,  
"I'm in need of a servant girl. Who amongst those employed by you is obedient and hard-working? I'd prefer she's around teenage years."  
"Well sir," the foreman replied, "We have several groups of girls who clean in between assembly shifts. The youngest if I remember correctly is ten, oldest… maybe fifteen."  
"That's perfect. Is now a good time to meet some of them?"  
"Yes sir, I'll bring them here."

When the overhead speaker crackled with a voice saying, "All custodians report to the foreman's office," Elysia snapped out of her daydreaming, briefly wondering why he wanted to see them. _Oh, right, the Count's here._ As she and her coworkers made their way to the small room towards the center of the complex, Elysia made sure to try and clean herself up a little, fixing her hair and removing any visible stains from her work outfit.

Once there, she and the others were introduced to the Count, who promptly explained his presence. When he was done, the administrator studied them for a moment, looking both for appearance and the way each girl presented herself. They all seemed to be hard-working and able to take orders, but none really stood out to him.

Until he saw Elysia.

When she looked back, alerted by his gaze, the Count addressed her with,  
"Hello there. What is your name, young lady?"  
While the Count was smiling and non-threatening, Elysia still felt like he was staring down at her.  
"Oh, um, Elysia, sir."  
"Elysia, eh? Well that's a lovely name. How would you like to work for me?"  
Her eyes lit up. The Count actually picked her.  
"I… I would very much like that, sir."  
"Well great. I'll give you a few hours to pack and say goodbye to your family, then meet me back here. Sound good to you?"  
"Y-yes sir." Elysia was shaking both with joy at being selected, and apprehension that she was living with the Count, away from her parents, siblings, and Einhard. While she had discussed this with the former and mentioned it to the latter, the reality of the matter was still hitting her. With a worried mind, Elysia left the manufactorum to do as the Count asked.

* * *

"Elysia?" her father noticed her as she caught up with her parents just before they left for work, "What're you doing home so early?"  
"I got picked."  
"Really? That's great!"  
His daughter sighed, "Yeah, but… I'm kinda nervous. I'm living with the Count and you won't be there."  
Elysia's mother put a hand on her shoulder, smiling comfortingly, "Everyone gets nervous the first time they leave home, Elysia. But you have to overcome it sometime, otherwise you won't get anywhere in life. You can't just stay home and expect everything will work out for you on its own."  
"Besides," her father added, "We'll try and visit you, or maybe you can visit us next time the Count comes by."  
"Yeah, that's true." Elysia embraced them both, then said, "I love you."  
"We love you too." Her mother spoke back.

Saying goodbye to her younger brother and sister, Elysia packed her few possessions and most of her wardrobe (which wasn't expansive, either), returning to the lasgun manufactorum, wanting to see Einhard one last time.  
"Hi Einhard." She announced her presence somberly, while Einhard was taking a short break.  
"Hi Elysia," he smiled at first, but saw her luggage, "The Count picked you?"  
Sighing again, the black-haired girl answered, "Yeah, I'm going away."  
"Oh." A sad realization was visible on Einhard's face, "Okay."  
"I know, it sucks. I really like you."  
"I really like you too, Elysia."  
Like a sad reprise of a joyous song, the pair stood awkwardly silent for a short while, unsure of what to say next.  
"Can we kiss again?" Elysia was the first to ask this time.  
The sweetness of their first was mixed with the bitterness that this would be their last, making them put more heart into it.

Neither could prevent mistiness in their eyes as they bid each other farewell.

* * *

A few hours later, Elysia was introduced to her new home, located a two hour journey by ground-car away. It was a large house, nothing like the regional governors' mansions or the Planetary Governor's palace, but to the modest girl it might as well have been.  
"You have that whole place to yourself?" she looked at it incredulously, having lived in a hab-block her whole life. The Count chuckled and answered,  
"Yes, well, my wife and two children have it to ourselves. But you're our newest guest, so we have a room for you."  
Said family came out to greet the district administrator and the new maid, composed of the Countess, a regal-looking woman with slightly-frizzled brunette hair, their son the Viscount, a lean, muscular young fellow, and his sister the Viscountess, a shy-looking, ghost-like blonde.  
"Hey hey, there she is!" said the Countess playfully as the two groups met halfway between the ground-car and house.  
"H-hi." Elysia shyly replied, "I'm Elysia."  
"Ooh, Elysia, what a pleasant name. We know you're a bit nervous about all this, but you have nothing to worry about. Now come on in, make yourself at home."

Sure enough, Elysia did manage to become used to her new surroundings, even if she was still a little homesick. It wasn't much different from cleaning a manufactorum floor, if anything, easier. When she wasn't busy, she became acquainted with the Count's family, specifically the Viscount and Viscountess whenever they were around. The former was often at a military academy to become an officer in the PDF, while the latter was something of a girly-girl who liked to shop. The Count was usually off with administrational duties and the Countess accompanied her daughter most of the time.

In fact, around the beginning of her third week was the first time the whole family was gathered at once since her arrival, letting their maid eat dinner with them at their table.

It was strangely quiet during the meal, save for a bit of small talk. Nobody started a real conversation, simply focused on their food, until the Viscountess spoke up with,  
"So when's dessert?"  
"Wait until everyone's done, silly girl." Her father answered lightheartedly, though the topic caught Elysia's curiosity.  
"What is for dessert, sir?"

The Count froze for a fraction of a second.

"Oh, um, it's a surprise."

When everybody was done eating, the Count leaned back in his chair and asked,  
"Alright, so, who wants dessert?"  
Everybody gave a relaxed yes, full from the food.  
"Stay right here, I'll go get it." The Count got up and went to another room.

As he went to retrieve it, his wife said to Elysia,  
"You're going to love this, dear. It's one of our favorites."  
"Yeah, I actually look forward to eating it." The Viscountess added, her brother continuing,  
"I keep telling Dad to serve it when I graduate from the academy. It's that good."

The Count reappeared at the entrance of the dining room, looking at Elysia dead in the eye and wearing the wickedest grin she had ever seen. Four sets of heavy manacles were held in his hand.

The young girl could only look back in total fear. Glancing around, the Countess, Viscount, and Viscountess were making the same expression at her, the other girl even licking her lips.

"Son,"

The father's voice cut through the cloying tension of the room,

"Please hold down our guest as we have dessert."

* * *

 **Talk about mood whiplash, right?**

 **But really though, don't actually make light of something like this.**


	3. Whispers

**Ok, here's Chapter 3. Sorry I didn't update on Thursday, for some reason FF isn't reading this as a Word document, so I had to copy-paste it here.**

 **I've noticed that not very many people have been reading this. I'm not blaming you guys for that, but I'm assuming I just published this at a bad time (everyone's finishing school). Like I said, it's not your fault, but mine for not entirely being aware of when I was putting this up.**

 **Anyway, enjoy the new chapter!**

* * *

 _Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane_

 _Chapter Three: Whispers_

Later that night, viciously beaten and thoroughly violated, Elysia was dragged away from the dining room and towards the utility room, her voice effectively gone from screaming and instead crying silently.

A secret panel in the wall was opened, leading down a short flight of stairs.  
"Get in there." The Count calmly ordered the ravaged maid, who could only comply out of fear.

Once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Elysia saw that she wasn't alone in this hidden basement.

Five pairs of eyes looked at her with surprise and pity, knowing she was the Count's latest acquisition. They were all girls like Elysia, duped by the district administrator into being his and his family's playthings.

The room they were hidden in was dimly-lit and resembled a dungeon, complete with cheap, splintery wooden boards serving as beds. Junk was pushed into the corners of the room by the slaves to avoid stepping on it, but somehow someone always did. The stench of human waste hung thick in the small area, and the fact that the door a short way up was heavy and reinforced kept it contained in there.

"Welcome to hell." One girl quietly said to Elysia.

* * *

Each member of the family had their own special way of tormenting Elysia when they pulled her out of the dungeon, all worse than the other. The Viscount was simple and brutish, using his athleticism and muscular frame to his advantage in keeping the girl compliant. Conversely, the Viscountess was incredibly sadistic, laughing maniacally over Elysia's pained screams when she hurt her enough. Her mother was similar to her daughter, but her time with the girl was more like a punishment for the crime of existing. The Count was always calm and collected when he had a turn with her, never shouting or getting angry, instead describing what he planned, and threatened her with, in vivid detail and complete monotone.

It was even worse when two or three of them tortured her, their individual traits amplified and mixed together in the worst way possible.

But the horror didn't end with just the family. Occasionally, their friends were invited over, and they too got to partake in the psychotic decadence.

Months went by like this, Elysia and the other slave girls brought up and sent back, day in, day out.

* * *

Sent back into the dungeon once more, exhausted and injured, the girl crawled onto one of the wooden planks, curling herself into a ball and trying to bury the latest anguish at the hands of the Viscountess out of her consciousness. The older girl had brought matches into play this time, striking one and putting it out on Elysia whenever she tried resisting.

She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but none of the others were made to go up.

Eventually, the door opened.

Stumbling down the stairs was a bawling girl, even younger than the youngest slave, not much older than six. The poor thing was the Count's latest acquisition, almost exactly a year to the day Elysia was first imprisoned.

All six of them came to the comfort of the new seventh.

As Elysia held the small girl, stroking her hair, a strange feeling began bubbling up inside her. A feeling of pure, undiluted rage. _Who does this to people? Who does this to a little kid? And why does the Emperor let this happen?_

* * *

It was a warm day out, slightly overcast, and the Count had the slaves' dungeon cleaned out. The seven captives were out in the yard, put to work menially instead of their intended purpose. Men with whips (the Count intended to keep his toys alive) watched them dig ditches and fill them back up, for no apparent reason but to torture them differently, giving them a crack on the back if they stopped or stumbled.

"Get up, runt!" one burly fellow shouted at the six-year-old, who had fallen over from exhaustion.

Elysia and the other girls briefly took a moment to look with pity, before the thug watching them barked at them to resume working.

"I said get up, you little piece of shit!" the other man roared again, a strike from his whip eliciting a pained scream from his victim.

Each girl flinched with every new lash, and the shriek that followed it.

Glancing back over, Elysia saw the six-year-old on the ground, crying like when she was first brought to this horrible place, her little arms both trying to fend off more attacks and beg for mercy.

Actually seeing the barbarity she'd known so long be inflicted on someone so small and so helpless made the spark of anger within her combust.

"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Elysia screamed as she felt her legs running towards the man, who barely had time to see a heavy shovel coming towards his head.

*CRACK*

The world went silent around her.

* * *

Elysia stood in a void, a light illuminating her and gradually darkening as the abyss swallowed it up. The only thing surrounding her was the sound of emptiness. She didn't bother looking around, instead waiting for one of the Count's brood to appear and deny her this peaceful nothing.

 **Girl.**

A deep, guttural voice sounded behind Elysia, nothing like she had ever heard. Curious, she turned around.

A horned red creature looked back at the now 14-year-old girl, with burning yellow eyes and sharp, carnivorous teeth. It stood hunched over on bestial legs, and in its hand was held a burning longsword.

Elysia did not feel any fear towards the monster, for she had already experienced too much horror.

 _What are you?_  
 **A messenger.  
** _Who would deliver a message to someone like me?  
_ **On behalf of my master, little one.**  
 _I don't know what you mean._  
 **I can smell you. Your anger. Your hate. Your desire to kill more than the mongrel you killed today.  
** _I really did kill him?_  
 **Of course. That sort of willingness to kill is exactly what my master wants.  
** _Who is your master?_ **  
Khorne, my dear.**  
 _Khorne?  
_ **Are you deaf? Khorne is the Blood God. The Lord of Skulls. Let him tap into the anger within you and unleash it on your oppressors.  
** _But what about the Emperor? Won't he save us?  
_ **Your Emperor is a rotten carcass, girl. He can't save you.**  
 _How dare you say that! The Emperor is the Guardian and Master of Mankind! He Protects!  
_ **He only protects what keeps his crumbling domain propped up on its collapsing legs. The Corpse-God cares not for the plight of individuals.  
** _You're wrong!  
_ **Am I, little one? If he did care about you, wouldn't he have saved you by now?  
** _He will eventually!  
_ **Eventually. Such a word with you mortals. It always means "never" when it's said, pup. But Khorne can offer you the truest freedom you will ever know if you serve him.  
** _What do you mean?  
_ **You are still young. You will have plenty of time to ponder it as long as you swear loyalty to Khorne. But you must find opportunities to let this filth know they will not break you. Keep up with the rage that burns within your heart and rebel.**

 _Wait, come back!_

But the beast loped away into the darkness.

* * *

 **If you're familiar with the Old Testament/Tanakh, you might notice that this was inspired by Exodus. Our girl Elysia is essentially Moses, and this chapter is the Killing the Overseer and Burning Bush parts (well, technically, she doesn't accept the message yet, but still).**

 **So that about wraps it up, and again, I apologize for the delay in updating. Next chapter will be posted on Monday (June 13th). See you then!**


	4. Defiance

**We're halfway though _Chronicles_ now with the posting of this chapter, so here it is!**

* * *

 _Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane_

 _Chapter Four: Defiance_

"I had a dream last night."

Elysia quietly told the six other slave girls early one morning, before the Count and family woke up for another round of heinous fun.

"It wasn't a nightmare? Even after what he put you through last night after you killed that guy?" Zipporah, a black young lady with coppery-brown curly hair replied first. Real dreams were a thing of the past for them. Only those that continued the pain received daily passed through their sleep-deprived minds.

"What was it of?" a blonde girl named Miele asked as she stood up.

"A red monster with horns talked to me."

"A red monster?" the six-year-old Krissy looked at Elysia with eyes wide, for those _used_ to be what made her scream for her parents at night.

"What did it say?" a fourth slave with green eyes named Evette sat closer to the black-maned speaker.

"It told me that we can be free if we swear loyalty to someone named Khorne." She refused to tell them of the creature's blasphemy to the Emperor, fearing she would alienate herself, and still not accepting it personally.

"Khorne?" Lanore, a brunette with a tattered blue bow forming a ponytail in her hair asked the next question.

"Yeah."

"Did Khorne and the red monster make you save me yesterday, Elysia?" Krissy threw another inquiry.

"I don't think so, Krissy. I just saw him whip you and got really mad. I didn't get to ask the red monster much, either."

"Wait, you two were talking in your dream?" the sixth, Alise, who had red hair, arched her brow.

"Yeah. But that's not the important part. It said we need to rebel."  
"Rebel? Against the Count and them? If we try anything, they'll hurt us more." Miele countered.  
"Well, it did say, 'find opportunities to let this filth know we will not let them break us.' I guess maybe we try increasing our pain tolerance?"  
"What do you mean?" Krissy, being six, didn't have the most extensive vocabulary.  
"It means we try and not scream as much when they hurt us. But it's not gonna work. I think they have a really big imagination for what they do with us." Zipporah pessimistically explained to the small girl.  
"We have to try, Zipporah. Don't you want to get out of here?" Evette shot back.  
"I'm with her," Lanore said to the green-eyed slave, "There's nothing we can do."  
"You don't know that. If there's one chance, one teeny-tiny chance we can bust out of this hell, I'm taking it." Alise voiced her support for Elysia.  
"I'm not so sure about it myself, Alise. Like she said, they have a ton of ways to torture us." Elysia had her own doubts about rebellion, even as she was the receiver of the revelation.  
"My dad always told me to take an opportunity when it shows up. Because if you don't, you'll never get it again. Like Alise said, I'm going to take this one." Evette declared.  
"Me too." Krissy was the next to join the cause.

"I don't know about this. I mean, I want to get out of here but… but they're just too good at what they do." Miele bowed her head, stroking some of the scars she'd received out of habit.  
"The Emperor Protects, Miele. Surely he's heard us by now." Alise smiled comfortingly.

Elysia cringed on the inside, remembering that the red creature called her Emperor a rotting carcass and that Khorne was the one who would truly free them. She still was skeptical, but a nagging at the back of her mind was saying it may have been right.

"Maybe he will if we do try and fight back. I think I will." Lanore, like Elysia, was doubtful, but she had the luxury of not hearing the monster's opinion on the matter.  
"If this works, I'm gonna become the Emperor's best servant he's ever seen." Miele finally conceded.

Now all eyes looked over to Zipporah.

"Well if we're all in agreement here, I might as well be too."

* * *

It took time, and incredible conviction, but the girls did manage to harden themselves in the face of the violations they received. More severe torture was employed by their captors, and while it caused a setback in their progress of resisting, those too would eventually fail to be music to the Count's and his family's sadistic ears.

Emboldened as they became increasingly tolerant of pain, the slave-girls' rebellion took a more active turn. Miele found a way to open the door to their dungeon on the inside, but because the estate's yard was heavily guarded, a feature only noticeable when the Count was not picking up and breaking in a new "toy," escaping was not an option. Instead, the seven captives would sneak out in the middle of the night in the house, sabotaging the wicked devices they could not steal and hide in the refuse of their cell.

The girls were beginning to consider an armed insurrection with the knives, scalpels, claws, and bludgeons they managed to collect, but there was no opportunity for such a thing to occur, reasoning that injuring or killing (all of them, especially Elysia, Alise, and Evette were beginning to lose their reservations on violently fighting back) the family all at once would be better than one at a time. That, and the guards were still a factor, since they actually knew how to fight hand-to-hand. The Count insisted on hiring men who knew that area of combat, lethal and non-lethal, because he wanted to keep his slaves alive even in the event of an uprising and escape attempt, so that when they did fail, their spirits were crushed even more.

It was the ultimate power over humans, and the family loved it.

* * *

 **So Chapter 4's now done. Ch. 5 will be published Wednesday (June 15th).**

 **I think you all have heard by now about what happened in Orlando Saturday night/Sunday morning. Please keep the victims and their families in your thoughts and prayers. (scary thing is, I literally live an hour north of where it occurred)**


	5. Defeat

**So things for Elysia are looking up, right?**

 **Prepare to be proven wrong.**

* * *

 _Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane_

 _Chapter Five: Defeat_

"State your business." One of the guards at the gates of the Count's house flatly ordered.

"Oh, um, hello, we're here to see our daughter." A man spoke, accompanied by his wife, who was clutching a baby boy, with another boy around twelve and a girl at ten standing close by.

"Daughter?" the guard arched a brow.

"Elysia, sir? The one with black hair who was chosen to be the Count's servant almost three years ago?"

The other man thought for a moment, then remembered. "Oh, yes. Elysia. Let me go inform the Count."

* * *

"Sir, I got this family here wanting to see one of your girls."

"What?" the Count was roused from a nap he was taking before he thought about using one of the aforementioned girls.

"They're asking for Elysia."  
The district administrator grinned wickedly. "Oh really? Well, let's give her to 'em."

* * *

Elysia managed to stay relatively quiet when the Viscount had his fun with her a few hours ago, but the injuries she sustained during it were sore now. She was hoping that was the only violation she'd be subjected to today, but that was quickly dashed.

"Oh Elysia darling, would you please come up?" Count's voice was heard at the top of the stairs.

Without any hesitation for fear of worse treatment, the former servant ascended the short staircase, dreading what the Count had in store for her.

"Your family's here." He announced with zero enthusiasm.

 _Family?_ The past two years had almost burned away every memory of her life before, when she was a normal girl, with normal problems and a loving family. She couldn't even remember what they looked like anymore, for all that filled her mind now was endless pain, misery, rage, and a sliver of hope.

"Family?" her thought became a word.

"Yes, you idiot. Your family." The man's voice dropped to a surly reply. "Alright, since the wife and kids aren't here, you're gonna go into my daughter's room and put some of her clothes and makeup on. Hide all of your scars that can be seen. Got it?"

Elysia was too bewildered by the situation, unconsciously acknowledging his order.

Practically floating to where the Viscountess would torture her and laugh like the lunatic she was, Elysia sat at the vanity, staring at her reflection.

A beaten, broken, starved shell of a teenage girl stared back at her. The flowing ebon mane that once caught many a boy's eye was now thin, dull, and tangled. Her once lively, caring eyes now sat empty and lifeless over a mouth that no longer knew how to smile. The lips that graced Einhard Throck's so long ago were thin, cracked, and colorless. Her cheeks likewise lacked the flush of life and the burn of ecstasy during that night, and her once clean, smooth skin was dirty, tarnished with the remnants of past thrashings, and rough as sand.

It was almost impossible to think she was never like this once, and Elysia knew she'd never be that way again.

One thing she didn't know was how long it had been since she last tried fixing herself up, almost forgetting what to do as she reached out for the Viscountess's extensive makeup set.

The time that passed as she attempted to reclaim some of her old beauty was only five or ten minutes, but to her it felt like hours.

All she really did do was clean her face with a wet rag sitting on the vanity, untangle her hair, then did her best to cover up her marks and put a little color on to make it look like she wasn't the pitiful creature she was reduced to.

"Elysia?" her master sweetly asked on the other side of the door.

"Uh, hold on, I'm not ready." She fumbled on her words, hurriedly applying her last bit of makeup and randomly picking some clothes to put on.

Once dressed, Elysia carefully opened the door with a deep breath.

"Elysia!" Her little sister Dara joyously hugged her, catching the older off-guard.

"Hi Elysia." Kolten, the brother, offered the next reuniting hug, his more subdued than that of their sibling.

"Elysia, it's been so long. Come give your old man a hug." Her dad playfully greeted his daughter, taking the few steps needed to embrace.

The entire experience to the slave-girl was incredibly surreal, for affection was something that no longer existed to her. Part of her didn't want to be returning these displays for fear of something bad happening, but this was her family. They loved her. She, however, couldn't feel anything but incomprehension.

Her mother offered no hug, instead smiling warmly and saying, "Hi sweetie." Turning the small bundle she was holding out to face Elysia, the woman added, "This is your new baby brother."

A tiny face looked at the big sister he never met, who could only offer the same expression back.

"He just turned seven months not too long ago. His name's Seren." Her father explained, smiling widely.

"Wanna hold him?" her mother offered the child to her daughter.

Somehow (perhaps instinctively) Elysia remembered how to hold a baby, having a staring contest of trying to make sense of what was going on with Seren. As long as they looked, neither one could come up with an answer.

"We can't tell you how much we missed you, Elysia." Mom spoke up, "But do you wanna hear some good news?"

The raven-haired girl looked suspiciously at her mother as she handed Seren back to her as he began baby-talking.  
"What?"

The big grin on Dad's face somehow got even wider as he said, "We were talking to the Count while we were waiting for you and he said to us that he could probably use some extra hands around the house and yard. If he wants, he'll let us work here instead of the manufactorum. He'll even build a guest house for us so we can move up. Isn't that great?"

"We'd get to live here!" Dara enthusiastically added, "And we won't have to miss you anymore!"

Elysia could only look at her family with horror. She'd seen what the Count and his family were capable of with girls like herself, but who knows what atrocities they'd inflict on a family? With a _baby_?

"Are you okay, Elysia?" all of them were concerned by her expression, but Kolten asked first.

"You… don't wanna live here." She finally answered after a moment's pause.

Mom arched brow with a disbelieving smile, "What? Why not?"

Lifting her shirt to expose her stomach provided them with an answer. All across Elysia's torso were scars, bruises, burns, and cuts. Her ribs, hidden only by flesh, let themselves be known to the five.

They all blinked in complete surprise.  
"Oh my-" Mom murmured.  
"Elysia…" Dad staggered, "Who did this to you?"

For the first time since she had become accustomed to pain, Elysia started to cry.  
"He does. They all do. Him, his wife, his son and daughter. They do this to me every day."

"They hit you?" Dara, just as terrified as her parents shakily asked.

"They do so much worse." Her older sister buried her face in her hands.

What little color remained in her family's face now drained entirely. Especially her parents, who cried with her. Kolten was old enough to know what Elysia meant, and felt his own eyes water. Dara and Seren had the fortune of innocence, but they too wept.

Mom and Dad both held their daughter, trying to comfort her, themselves, and each other.  
"We are getting you out of here right now." Her father snarled, enraged that this was happening.  
"I'm not the only one." Elysia managed to say.  
"You mean there are more girls they do this to?" Her mother caught her husband's anger.  
"Yes. I can show you."

* * *

The Count was nowhere to be seen as Elysia led her family to the secret entrance where the other six slaves were hidden. She knew for a long time now on how to open it, exposing the two groups to each other.

Neither could summon any words, the slaves too shocked at seeing someone who wasn't going to hurt them and the family unable to comprehend that this sort of cruelty extended to more than just Elysia.

"Don't you just love surprises?" the Count appeared behind them, with several of his men next to him.

Dad only roared, charging at the man who defiled his daughter in a blind rage. Calmly, almost casually, one of the thugs clotheslined him with his club, knocking Elysia's father down.

"Help him!" Zipporah could be heard in the dungeon, as she and the five other slaves pulled out the stash of weapons they had been stealing.

She, Evette, Alise, Lanore, Miele, and even Krissy charged up the short staircase, screaming in fury. Elysia, her mother, Kolten, and Dara could only stare, and Seren's own wails added to the chaos.

The guards quickly beat the would-be revolutionaries, but not without getting a few injuries themselves.

Once the six girls were thrown back down into the dungeon, the Count picked up one of their weapons.

"I was wondering where these went." He nonchalantly studied a large knife, then looked at Elysia. "I always figured you were behind it. After all, you did kill one of my men last year."

"You deserve so much more for doing this, you monster." Dad clutched a broken, bleeding nose.  
"I've been told that before, sir. You're not the first one to find out how we have fun around here." The district administrator stepped over to where Mom and Dara stood rooted to the ground, eyeing them lecherously. "You have a lovely wife and younger daughter. I don't think I've ever had any in my collection be related."

Elysia's mother spat in his face. "I'd rather die."

Wiping it off, grinning psychotically, the Count only replied, "I like it when new stock is defiant." He looked back over to Elysia, "but not current stock." Stepping back behind his minions, he finished with,

"Suit yourself, madam."

The thugs brandished high-powered autopistols and fired.


	6. Sisters

_Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane_

 _Chapter Six: Sisters_

 _WHY?! WHY DID THIS HAVE TO HAPPEN?!_

 __ **Face it, pup. The Corpse-God has abandoned you.**

 **** _BUT YOUR KHORNE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING EITHER!_

 __ **Khorne cares not from whence the blood flows, only that it does.**

 **** _THEY WERE INNOCENT! THEY DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!_

 __ **Khorne is impersonal. He expects his followers-**

 **** _SHUT UP! JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP. EVERYTHING I EVER KNEW AND LOVED IS GONE AND THERE'S NO WAY TO BRING ANY OF IT BACK!_

 __ **Your rage is thick and strong, young one. It pleases Khorne. But as I was going to say, Khorne expects his followers to be self-reliant. Strong-willed. Ready, willing, and able to fight, kill, and die in his name. Only those who can do all those things are named his champions. And do you know why he expects that of his worshippers?**

 **** _Why?_

 __ **This mortal plane is cruel. It does not discriminate against who feels its cruelty. From the mightiest warrior to the weakest little child, it will beat them, break them, and make him regret even existing. And most do. They wish to die but are cursed with life. The epitome of brokenness. The ultimate cruelty. But to prevent such a fate, you must be cruel first.**

 **** _Is that why you told me to rebel?_

 __ **Now you're learning, girl. These maggots who did all this to you are just extensions of the mortal plane's infinite need to break its inhabitants. To pledge one's self to Khorne means you will fight back and let the universe know you will not submit to its whims.**

 **** _But what if you die? Doesn't that mean you've been broken?_

 __ **You are mortal, stupid. Of course you will die. But when you die fighting, you die free. It is the ultimate denial of your submission.**

 **** _But what about my family? They didn't all die fighting._

 __ **Not all who died passively were subjugated in life. To die without a chance to fight it is just another form of cruelty. That is why Khorne despises those who kill the weak and helpless. That is what cowards and those without honor do.**

 **** _I thought Khorne doesn't care who bleeds. Only that blood flows._

 __ **All violence is pleasing to Khorne. But he does not condone all of it. While you may be able to kill, killing those inferior to you is not a true willingness to do so. Bravery is killing someone who would have more than likely killed you first.**

 **** _So Count is a coward for killing my family because they couldn't fight back._

 **Yes. He killed your family because he was afraid your rebellion would succeed, and this was his attempt to make you submit.**

 **** _They were my family though. He took them from me._

 __ **And that should only make your desire to be free even stronger, girl. Vengeance for your family's deaths, and for all the suffering he has put you through, will only be yours if you fight.**

* * *

Throughout the rest of the week, and going into the next, the Count had the families of the other slave girls found, brought them to his residence, and executed them right in front of their relative already trapped. He did this to insure all of his toys were totally consumed by despair, unwilling to resist anymore.

But Elysia, after several sleepless nights of thought, abandoned her belief in the Emperor and embraced Khorne. Now she needed the others to do the same.

Like the first time they met, the girls came to the comfort of the now eight-year-old Krissy, for her family was the last to be killed. This time, however, most of them cried with her.

Miele, being the one who discovered how to pick the lock, lost her mother, father, and older brother after Elysia. Evette, who suggested stealing weapons, witnessed her dad, grandmother, and little sister shot next. Zipporah's family, a mother and two younger brothers, were gunned down two days later. Alise's aunt and uncle adopted her, but they faced the same fate. Lanore, who only had a father, saw him take a bullet to the back of the head not much longer after Alise's godparents met their demise.

Hope was gone. Only suffering remained.

"How could he have done something like this?" Evette's fingers were in her hair as she held her head in grief, tears making tiny puddles on her skinny, abused legs.  
"You know why he did?" Elysia growled, sitting cross-legged, elbows on her knees and head down.  
"Because he and his family are fucking evil?" Zipporah snapped back, just as angry.  
"Close, Zipporah. The Count's a fucking coward."  
"What makes a man who rapes girls and kills their families a coward?" Miele managed to say without sobbing or sniffing.  
"You answered your own question. A coward only hurts the weak because he's scared the strong will be able to fight back. That's why the Count picked us. We were weak. But when we started showing strength, he was so scared we might have been able to break free he tried breaking our spirits first."

"But he did, Elysia. He's taken absolutely everything from us now." Lanore held the still-crying Krissy.  
"That's what he wants you to think. But it should make you fight harder."  
"Did the red monster come into your dreams again, Elysia?" Alise asked, once her eyes dried.  
"Yes, it did. And it told me that the world is cruel. And we can only be cruel to it if we don't want to live a life of wanting to die."  
"He killed our families, Elysia. How can you still want to try and fight after that?" Zipporah, having slipped back into depression, retorted.

"Ever since I first saw Krissy coming down those stairs, I've been angry. Angry at the Count and his family for doing all this to us. Angry at myself because I fell for their lies about needing a new servant. Angry at the Emperor because he's ignored our prayers. Let's face it: he abandoned us a long time ago. He might not have even cared to begin with. We're just seven girls in this galaxy full of who knows how many people. All he cares about is the Imperium of Man. Not the actual people in it. But Khorne sent the red monster to me. It sensed my anger. It told me that if I tapped into it, they couldn't break me. Even if I died fighting, I'd deny them what they want: submission. The Count doesn't want to kill us because he wants us to submit. He can take our families, our innocence, our very lives, but if we give ourselves to Khorne, he can't take away our need for vengeance. I already have. Who else will?"

The other girls looked at Elysia in stunned silence. Some were amazed at her vigor. Some were surprised she had left the Emperor. The rest were contemplating the philosophy of what she said. But in all cases, nobody made an immediate move. It was so much to take in.

"Girls," the Viscount appeared at the top of the staircase, still wearing his academy uniform, "Dad told me to tell you he's ordering some dresses for you. We're having people over for the New Year in a couple weeks and he's gonna bring you out for it."

One year on Elysia's homeworld was roughly equivalent to three Terran years, though its inhabitants only celebrated the yearly cycles of their world, but still used Terran time in reference to business.

"Speaking of bringing you out, get up here, Alise."

* * *

Shortly after midnight, Alise whispered to Elysia,

"I'm with you."

Evette gave up on the Emperor after sunrise.

Krissy defected third, not long after being toyed with by the Countess that afternoon.

Zipporah was fourth this time, making her decision later that evening.

Lanore and Miele embraced the bloodied whispers of freedom Elysia spoke of right afterwards.

"I'm happy to know you all have decided to fight on the side of Khorne." The raven-haired messenger of the Blood God smiled a small grin. "The cruelty we have endured can only be met with our own. We've lost everything, but through Khorne we are rebuilt. We no longer have any family, but we are all sisters now."

The other six all affirmed their pride in being sisters-in-arms and newfound faith.

"And on the last night of this year, a new one starts. One where we will be free. And our captors will feel the wrath of Khorne."

For the next several weeks up to the Party, the first Sisters gathered the junk of their dungeon, turning it into improvised weaponry, for the Count and family had the torture instruments the girls had originally been stealing destroyed.

But it didn't matter.

They were still going to pay for their evil with blood.

* * *

 **I admit, the Sorority of Violence's philosophy is basically a violent version of my own. I'll be happy to explain more thoroughly if you ask me.**

 **Just two more chapters, people!**


	7. Slaughter

**Happy Birthday to me!**

 **But because I'm generous, and because this is the scheduled day for it, I'm giving you all the gift of the second-to-last chapter of _Chronicles of Bloodmane._**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 _Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane_

 _Chapter Seven: Slaughter_

The New Year's Party was tonight.

And the seven slave-girls were going to be free.

Their homemade weapons were found places to hide on their dresses, now all they needed to do was wait.

Planning to commence the slaughter of their captors shortly after being drawn out of their dungeon for the final time, they would then rely on isolating and ambushing the Count's thugs when they inevitably heard the noise. Once all those who had desecrated, violated, and tortured them for too long were dead, the girls would burn the house to ashes.

"But what if we fail?" Lanore looked at Elysia, fear in her eyes.  
"If we do, Lanore," the black-maned prophet of Khorne replied, "remember what the red monster told me. If you die fighting, you die free. Don't let them take you alive. Kill yourself, even, if needs be. Because what they'd do to you will be so much worse."  
"It's not like we have anything to lose, anyway." Evette added gloomily, as she concealed her shiv in the long sleeve of her gown.  
"I'm not afraid to die." Krissy spoke in a surprisingly mature voice.  
"The Count's killed us already." Zipporah growled, strapping a short length of wood with nails protruding from one end's side to her leg under the dress.

* * *

The New Year's Party went off without a hitch. The Count and family went all out this time, acquiring the best food and drink they could find across the district they governed, and their ties to the black market supplied them with a good amount of high-quality drugs. Everyone here, the city mayors and some accompanying council members, plus their husbands or wives, were all gorging themselves, drunk, or under the influences of whatever they smoked, snorted, or otherwise ingested.

The Count smiled to himself in a hazy stupor, watching the depravity with satisfaction. But the best part had yet to come.  
"Daaaaaadddd…." His daughter slurred whiningly, high as a kite. "When're we gonna bring 'em out? I'm tired of waiting."  
"In a few minutes. Be patient."

Sure enough, the district administrator paused the music that had been softly playing and shouted for the partygoers' attention.  
"Attention all of our wonderful guests, I have an announcement to make. First of all, Happy New Year!"  
"Happy New Year!" came the cheerful refrain.  
"Secondly, I hope you all are aware that all of this stuff we spent weeks gathering is just the beginning. Because as some of you have already seen, we've spent three years collecting the loveliest girls in our district. Now without further ado, here they are, for your pleasure."

The Viscount led the slaves up from the dungeon, and they all walked silently into the main room.

Everything was in slow motion.

Hearts began to race.

Cold sweat formed on their faces and in their palms.

Freedom was close at hand.

 _This is it_. The seven all thought to themselves.

Many of the leering faces looked familiar to them, from past visits when they got to do what their captors did on a daily basis. They were all going to die.

Giving glances to each other with expressions of, "get ready, remember what to do," the girls were made to stop in the middle of the room.

"Alright, take your pick." The Count said blissfully, unaware of what was about to happen.

A middle-aged man with shoulder-length greying hair took Elysia.

Zipporah was selected by a fat man with a beard.

Krissy was led by an older woman who carried the smell lho sticks to one of the couches in the room.

One couple, a man with spectacles and his wife with short hair, grabbed Evette.

Alise was given to another woman, younger than the other two who shared skin tone with Zipporah.

A short man with paw-like hands lewdly groped Lanore's rear as he walked her out of the line.

Miele was picked by a fourth woman who had the same hair color as her victim.

Once each girl was at a spot, they took charge of the situation by getting on top of or in front of their chooser, getting close and kissing them.

It was merely a distraction.

Weapons were slowly revealed out of the victims' eyesight and aimed right at their heads or faces, the others too drunk or high to really notice.

Breaking her lips off of the man, brass shiv ready to stab, the rage that had been building inside Elysia for three years was finally unleashed.

"NOW!"

Few had the chance to scream.

The room devolved into chaotic violence in seconds, the partygoers snapping out of their daze enough to realize what was happening.

But they were not nearly as fast enough to escape the slave-girls' fury, the drugs and alcohol slowing their movement.

Right after stabbing her first victim in the cranium, Elysia bound up and caught another man as he tried to run, turning him around and ramming her knife upwards through his eye.

Zipporah struck the fat man with such murderous force her club broke, leaving the nail-driven half embedded in the side of his face. It didn't kill him, but it mattered not. She threw him off the couch he was sitting on so he landed on his back, getting back on top of him to shove the other end still in her hand down his throat, broken end first, then stomped down on it.

Krissy slashed her victim repeatedly across the face, neck, and sternum with a shard of broken glass in a frenzy, losing more and more of the blade each time until it was a stub wrapped in a rag. Seamlessly, the small girl jumped off the couch and over the rapidly-dying woman onto a man's back, ripping off the protective cover on the last bit of glass and slamming it into the back of his neck, deep enough to come out the other side.

Evette killed the husband and wife who selected her much more cleanly, upon drawing her shiv she first drove it into the temple of the woman, then into the forehead of her man mid-reaction. Watching them slump over, she whipped her head over to see one of many people trying to run close enough to catch. Instead of chasing him, she threw her improvised blade, which luckily landed into the man's back, causing him to stop in his tracks. Evette walked up behind him, yanked it out, and then used it to cut his throat.

Alise mercilessly slugged her victim over and over, aided by two pieces of wood with nails hammered halfway through acting as knuckledusters. The woman stood no chance, Alise punching her several more times before realizing she was dead. Undeterred, she got up and tackled another partygoer, slamming his face into the floor just as savagely and as many times as with her first kill, sending a final blow to the back of his head to finish him off.

Lanore clawed the short man with sharpened metal attached to old gloves, swiping across his face twice, then put her fingers to his forehead and ripped down, effectively shredding what was left of his skin. The man screamed in a high-pitched voice, which Lanore found irritating, making her tear out his larynx.

Miele thrust her shiv right between her victim's eyes, killing the older blonde woman instantly. In a fluid motion, she managed to grab a man as he turned to run by his jacket, yanking to allow a grip on his hair, making him lean back. Miele reached around with the hand holding her shiv and stabbed him in the abdomen, then pushed hard to send it across the soft flesh of it. Shooting her knee into his back, she dropped him as his intestines threatened to come out, leaving him to die of shock.

Those first acts of butchery occurred in the sum of roughly a minute, but the Sisters' thirst for blood did not slake.

The Viscount tried to fight back with his strength, successfully throwing Zipporah off of her second victim before she smashed the broken nail-driven board into someone's forehead. He helped the man get up quickly to allow him to run, but several of the slave-girls ganged up on him fast, Alise striking hard against the son's face with her improvised knuckles, making the Viscount's head whip to the left from impact, only for Krissy to smash a bottle against the other side of his head, sending it back across. The Viscount stumbled, allowing Evette to knock him down, get on top of him, and hack at what was left of his face as Krissy and Alise mangled his muscular torso.

His sister the Viscountess, by contrast, screamed in terror as she clambered away from the massacre, the drug she was on making it harder to completely get off of the couch she had been laying on. She wasn't fast enough, for Elysia grabbed her ankle, dragging the older girl off the sofa with a painful bang when her body hit the floor.  
"NO! NO! NO! NONONONONONONO!" Viscountess blubbered, already crying in fear.  
"I THOUGHT YOU LIKED PAIN!" Elysia howled in primal rage, lifting the leg she had been holding higher and stabbing the Viscountess's kneecap. Her resulting shriek almost penetrated everyone's eardrums, but the black-haired girl only roared in response,  
"NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE'VE FELT FOR THREE FUCKING YEARS! SCREAM, YOU CUNT, SCREAM!"  
Zipporah, having rebounded from being thrown by the Viscount, took the opportunity to lift the sadist's arm and whack the back of her elbow, another scream loosened before the two Sisters put her out of her misery with a mutual stomp to the face.

Miele and Lanore backed the Countess into a corner, the woman's eyes filled with horror and palms against the wall. The blonde slave stabbed her in the abdomen, leaving the shiv there and throwing the middle-aged brunette to the ground face-down, stomping on her back above the blade sticking out for good measure. Lanore straddled the same spot, running her claws against the sides of the Countess's head, then lifted it up and back to drop two of the sharpened fingers into her eyes, withdrawing those seconds later to slam her face back into the floor.

The Count's enforcers ran in just right after, delayed by the flood of partygoers trying to escape, weapons already drawn. The thugs' autopistols barked angrily, but the Sisters latched on to any person still in the room, or, by some lunatic strength, used corpses, for use as shields, sprinting forward into the gunfire with their human bullet catchers and throwing them into the men once close enough, using the brief distraction of them trying to remove the body to take some of the pistols for themselves, executing the thugs closest at point-blank range before they could properly counterattack. The enforcers were never truly disciplined, allowing the murderous slave-girls to cut them down with relative ease.

All other people were easy pickings, quickly shot, beaten, or stabbed as the orgy of slaughter carried itself outside. Soon the yard of the estate was dotted with bodies, all violently put there by the Sisters. The seven reconvened on the front porch they had first beheld as supposed servants so long ago.  
"Count's not here." Spoke Alise, her forearms two scarlet gauntlets of blood.  
"We gotta find him." Krissy piped up, now carrying a short mace from an enforcer, already dented from the many blows she struck.  
"He's not gonna see the end of this night alive." Elysia agreed, scanning the area for something moving.  
"There he is." Zipporah pointed to a figure trying to run down the road, stumbling occasionally due to drugs.  
"Don't kill him right away." Elysia dipped her head in anger, striding after him.

* * *

The Count didn't know how long he'd been running. He just did. Not bothering to wait, or even check, on his wife, son, or daughter. Odds were, they wouldn't have gotten away anyway. The world shifted, twisted, and slurred around him, almost making him sick if it weren't for pure terror pulsing through his veins. He didn't even get very far, for he lived in a grassland area with few trees, which, aided by the drugs he'd ingested at the party, made everything look the same. He was beginning to sober up, when he heard running footsteps behind him. Count tried to speed up, but his sore legs and screaming lungs prevented that from happening, as he felt himself go down.

He desperately clawed at the dirt road to try and get away, kicking randomly at whoever tackled him, only to receive one in turn to his side, effectively making him stop and look back at the Sisters, blood slick on their hands, faces, and soaked on their dresses in the full moonlight.  
"Don't kill me! Please! I'll do anything! I don't wanna die! Let me go! Please, have mercy!" He knew his begging was futile as tears streamed down his face, but he did it anyway.  
"Listen to him, girls." Elysia stood over him, faking incredulity, "He's… _begging_ … for _mercy_."  
"Mercy? You mean the exact same thing he's never given us for three years?" Evette asked, semi-rhetorically.  
"And he's begging for it? The same way we have whenever he did whatever he and his just as insane family wanted with us?" Lanore added.  
"Weird. Because usually, you're so calm, cool, and collected whenever you're raping and torturing us. How's it feel to have the tables turned, you sick bastard?" Miele said to the Count directly.

He could only look at them, unable to conjure any words.

"Well, aren't you going to answer?" Krissy played the naïve one, putting on a childish face of condemnation.

"Tell me something, Count," Elysia spoke once more, putting an elbow in her hand, "why do you think, after you've taken everything from us, our lives before, our families, our _innocence_ , that we should give you anything, especially mercy? I know why: because you're a coward. You're so afraid of the universe and the idea there's something or someone bigger and better than you that you prey on the weak, because they can't fight back, so you can be as cruel as you want to them. And for a long time, we were weak. But then we started showing strength. We told you and the whole world we weren't going to let fear take us down. So what did you do? Be crueler. You killed our families right in front of us, because you were scared of our strength. And you did break us for a little while. But then we found Khorne. We were taught that the whole universe would be cruel to us, and the only way not to submit to fear is to fight back. If life's meant to make us bleed, we're gonna bleed it first."

She then murmured to the other six, "Hold him down." Four grabbed his arms and legs, the other two simply watched. Elysia straddled the Count's legs, raising her shiv with both hands just above the tip of his ribcage.

"And bleed you will." She looked him dead in the eye, right as she plunged her shiv into his stomach, making him scream in pain as he watched her tear her blade downwards to the waist of his trousers, blood already seeping out of the long wound.

More was shed as Elysia pulled the ripped flesh further apart with her hands, producing a sickening sound.

The most unexpected moment came when she took her long black hair, the mane that caught the Count's eye those three years ago, and dunked it into the crevasse, anointing herself with his blood.

"Do the same, my Sisters." She instructed, Zipporah, Krissy, Miele, Lanore, Alise, and Evette all dipping their hair into his opened gut.

They then slit his wrists vertically along the vein, followed by the large ones at the back of his legs and feet, and finally his throat to finish him off.

Once they made sure he was dead, and spat on his body, the Sisters gathered the bodies of all they had slain and piled them in the dungeon that held them so long, leaving the door open as they poured alcohol on the corpses, lit a match, and tossed it on the pile.

The seven ex-slaves watched their prison burn for the rest of the night, the flames and smoke climbing high into the sky.

As the fire died down, leaving only ashes and glowing wood, Zipporah quietly whispered, "Elysia, look."

Dawn slowly crept over the horizon, the first sun of the New Year greeting them.

Tears filled their eyes. The first Sisters of the Sorority of Violence smiled.

They were free.

* * *

 **Don't you just love a happy ending, especially with unbridled savagery? Ok, well, technically, there's still an epilogue left to go, but that's for Tuesday (June 21st).**

 **And in case you're wondering, yes, Krissy saying "I'm not afraid to die anymore" and Zipporah replying "The Count's killed us already" is a reference to _The Revenant_ , which was a very good movie (go watch it!). And for you metal aficionados, Elysia's "and bleed you will" line is taken from Meshuggah's _Bleed_.**

 **Well I do believe that's everything, so stick around for the epilogue!**


	8. Epilogue

**Alright, here it is, the final chapter of _Chronicles of Bloodmane_! **

**I won't say anything else so you can savor the moment. Enjoy!**

* * *

 _Sorority: Chronicles of Bloodmane_

 _Epilogue_

"Wow." A ten-year-old girl looked at her mother with her mouth slack, amazed by her story.

"You should be wowed." Elysia leaned back, "Our Sorority didn't just appear out of thin air one day."

"So what happened next?" The girl asked with a small amount of excitement.

"I'll tell you…

* * *

We were on the run for a while, dodging the law once they found out what happened. But we would ambush their patrols and take their weapons. As our reputation grew, so did our numbers. We found another harem of slave girls more than willing to embrace the Lord of Skulls, a few orphans and runaways stuck with us and took our message, and even a few bored rich kids decided, "what the hell, they seem fun." By the time their PDF was marching to look for us, we had the fighting ability and weapons necessary to take them on. We did what we'd been doing, taking out patrols and raiding their outposts.

There's one raid in particular I remember like yesterday. The fight itself was pretty easy, considering how green they were. We were looting them for gear when Zipporah and Miele said, "Hey Elysia, we got a live one here!"

I couldn't believe who I was seeing. I still managed to recognize him after being enslaved and after nine years. It was Einhard, that boy I kissed when I was thirteen. I can still see the fear and surprise in his eyes when he recognized me. I swear time stopped. We both said each other's names in complete disbelief. "You two know each other?" Miele, or maybe it was Zipporah asked. I was like, "Yeah. Long time ago. Uh... spare him. I'll take care of it."

So I take him to an empty room in his station and just talk to him. Try and make sense of what was going on. Eventually it came back to when we were kids.  
"Elysia," Einhard said to me, and I still know it perfectly to this day, "You were the one to me. I thought you and I were meant to be. I hadn't met a girl like you since then. I thought I was in love with you."  
I started to cry. I couldn't love him back. I didn't know what love was anymore. "Einhard," I said, "I don't know what that means anymore. I've just been through too much."

I kept crying. Einhard came up behind me and gave me a hug. He was so selfless, even after I told him we could not be together. It was the first time in years someone did something loving to me. I didn't know how to really respond, so I overreacted. I just felt this need.

Then I realized what I'd done. He was an enemy of Khorne. I did shameful things with him. And I did them as a servant of Khorne. Einhard fell asleep. In a complete panic, I killed him, quick so he didn't die in pain. He was the only one I've ever regretted.

But then I found out I was carrying you a few days later. For the first time since I was enslaved, I felt real fear. Would my child be cursed? Would it be stillborn? Would I die delivering it? That night I didn't sleep, I was so worried.

For several days I thought and thought, unsure of what to do. I wouldn't kill something as small and helpless as a baby, but what about after it was born? And then it dawned on me: my kid would never have to experience the pain I did. You'd get to grow up innocent. You'd grow up without experiencing bondage. You'd have nothing to regret fighting the universe's need to bind its inhabitants. You'd be all the things life didn't let me be. That's what your name means. Herut. Freedom. Don't throw any of that away."

"I won't, Mom." Herut answered, her voice weighted with pride and sense of duty.  
"Promise me?" Elysia smiled the way her own mother did so long ago when she left them behind.  
"Promise."  
"That's my girl."

* * *

By the time Herut was old enough to fight with her mother, Elysia had received several small rewards for her devotion to Khorne. Chief of which was that her hair became blood, meaning while it didn't change too much appearance-wise, the life-giving fluid now would drip and trickle with every movement she made. The second corresponded to the first, for Elysia's skin became snow-white, allowing the blood from both her hair and her foes to better be displayed for all to see. Her final blessing was a degree of improved strength, allowing her to swing both a chainsword and a chainaxe at once.

To the newest Sisters, and to those who somehow survived their encounter with them, Elysia became known as Bloodmane. She took the name as her own, and the title of Mistress of the Sisterhood when it was suggested to her by a corrupt ship captain while negotiating to get off-planet.

Zipporah was beginning to be referred to as High Priestess, for she effectively became Bloodmane's right hand, aiding her leader in planning tactics and almost always having her back in the heat of battle, saving Bloodmane from surprise attacks several times over the years. Alise, later renamed Sang-main, was considered Bloodmane's left hand, because of her keen business mind, offering advice to the messenger of Khorne when dealing with temporary alliances and securing means to travel to other worlds. Evette, who started going by Marheena, was also nicknamed "The Assassin" for her quiet demeanor and elegance on the battlefield, at least in comparison to the savagery of the other Sisters. Krissy, conversely, became Kafshë, for she lost any semblance of humanity when fighting, killing her enemies in a bloodthirsty dervish. Lanore soon became known as Lykaina, for while the Sorority had once taken refuge in a city, she, while in disguise, found an optometrist who could surgically alter one's eye color, kidnapping him and making the doctor change her greyish-brown eyes to a bestial, wolfish yellow, filing her teeth into points to complete the look. Other Sisters liked it, including the Mistress, to where she eventually decided that the practices of eye color changing and tooth filing became compulsory. Miele was gravely wounded in one battle when she was 27, nearly dying from a deep bite of a chainsword into her side (it just barely severed her spine, but she managed to shoot its owner in the face right before it did), but managed to recover, even becoming mother to a daughter a few years later, but the birth complicated her old wound, and she died not long afterwards.

Bloodmane herself left the mortal world at the age of sixty-four, in battle against a horde of Slaaneshi cultists. It is said she finally fell after hours of fighting, shouting her defiance and willingness to die upon a mountain of corpses, as the sun of the world they were on set.

The Sorority mourned her death for eight days, by indiscriminately killing what remained of the cult that claimed their leader's life until there were absolutely none left. Zipporah assumed command when the slaughter was complete, declaring no Sister should live past the age of Bloodmane upon death, "as a form of respect, and to die at an age where one still has the strength to swing a chainsword one last time." Through her, the Sisters established the traditions of learning to fight from birth to sixteen, fighting from sixteen to thirty-two, having and raising a daughter from thirty-two to forty-eight, and finally ending their life in a final battle by age sixty-four.

Herut later became a mother herself, naming her child Perdition. The granddaughter of Bloodmane lived up to her name, adorning herself in human remains to strike fear into the hearts of her enemies, earning her the nickname of "Walking Corpse" among Sisters. Perdition had her own daughter, who would become known as Toothknuckle (for she once punched an opponent hard enough in the mouth as to leave several of his teeth embedded in her fist, keeping them there as a trophy). Alas, she did not live much longer after receiving her new moniker to continue the lineage of Bloodmane, for she attacked a Guardsman who had been issued a plasma gun during a fight three years later, and his swing of the gun's stock at her face made the highly-volatile ammunition explode, killing them both.

And yet, although none of her descendants remained, Bloodmane's legacy never truly died, for the Sorority of Violence would continue to write their manifesto of violent freedom gained through bowing to Khorne in the blood of the Phlegyas Sector for years to come.

* * *

 **And so it ends. That's how the Sorority of Violence began.**

 **Fear not, my dear readers, for while this story may be over, that of the current generation of Khorne's Daughters will continue soon, for I have finally managed to have an idea on how to keep it going. I can't say when it will be published, but know that it shall be.**

 **See you then!**

 **Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention:**

 **Herut does mean "freedom" in Hebrew (keeping the Exodus allusion)**

 **Sang-main is a combination of the French words "blood" and "hand"**

 **Marheena- Pashto for "death"**

 **Kafshe- Albanian for "beast"**

 **Lykaina- Greek for "she-wolf"**

 **Ok, now bye for real!**


End file.
